Chapter 156: Making Hot Sauce
Zhang Hongying's jacket is made of dark green velvet with dark patterns, and she added a lining to make a double-breasted cotton jacket.
She had bought this piece of cloth herself before.
The remaining piece of dark gray khaki and floral cloth was given to Lu Donglin and Lu Chun'e.
Only then did she spread the cut cloth on the table and added cotton into it little by little. After the cotton was added, she took it to the sewing machine and trimmed the edges. It took her an entire afternoon to finish making pockets and clothes.
My neck was so stiff that I didn't even notice when the sun went down.
Lu Donglin shouted in the yard: "Sister-in-law, sister-in-law, your letter, there is your letter, my brother brought it back to you from the commune."
Wen Wan pushed the things in her hand aside and ran out in a hurry.
Lu Dongping held two envelopes in his hands and walked to the door, waving them there.
Wen Wan reached out and took it.
There were two letters, one from Lao Wen and one from the Xu family. They arrived at the same time, as if they had agreed to reply to her together.
The letters from the Xu family were unexpectedly few, no longer a series of casual conversations. Instead, they were from Xu's eldest aunt, her handwriting as gentle and beautiful as she was. The letter contained similar information to Xu Qingming's: his second and third uncles had been sent down to the countryside, along with several cousins. Her grandparents were in good health, so she wasn't worried. Knowing her life was difficult, she said she had gotten her some milk powder and new shoes, which she would mail to him later.
Wen Wan felt that she should write a letter and tell her uncle and aunt seriously not to send her anything anymore. Her second and third uncles had been sent down to the countryside, and her brothers and sisters might have gone to places that were even more difficult than hers. And her eldest aunt was already a grandmother, and she had a lot of things and people to worry about. She was living a good life, with no worries about food and clothing, and there was really no need for her to send anything anymore.
Shoes and milk powder are not cheap and are a significant expense. I should save these for my nephews and nieces.
Old Wen's letter was as thick as usual. When she opened it, she saw that it had only two pages. Along with the letter paper were various bills and industrial coupons. Wen Wan counted them according to categories. She felt that Old Wen had sent her all the bills he had saved for half a year.
She thought that when she replied, she should tell him that she had obtained a marriage certificate. Perhaps, she would never go back. She also didn't know if the woman knew that Lao Wen had sent her so many things, and whether she would make a fuss or treat Lao Wen badly.
She had to tell him not to send things to her all the time, to keep some for himself, and to be nicer to himself.
As the sun sets, the afterglow dyes half the sky red, and the earthen wall rammed with yellow mud and wheat husks is illuminated brightly. The chrysanthemums planted not long ago at the corner have recovered, and the buds on them have quietly opened up.
It was another sunny day on Sunday, and Lu Mingjiang's brows, which had been furrowed for a long time, finally relaxed.
Lu Dongping didn't have to go to the commune. The young men continued to work in the wheat fields, led by the experienced laborers of the previous generation. The women at home were also busy, getting up early in the morning to go out and pick grass for the pigs.
Listening to the noise outside, Wen Wan turned over and didn't want to move. She dozed off for a while and didn't get up until dawn. After washing up, she noticed the bunch of chrysanthemums she had planted in the corner and her eyes lit up. She excitedly went into the house to find a pair of scissors and cut two branches with the stems and leaves without hesitation. Then she went back to the house, rinsed the emerald green bottle, added water, put the flowers in it, and placed it on the desk in the room.
Because of these two flowers, the whole house seems to come alive.
At noon, Lu Chun'e came back and put down her needlework to help with cooking. Lu Donglin and Zhang Hongying took the peppers to the pond in the bamboo forest to wash them.
Do not remove the stems of the peppers. First, let them soak in water, then put them back in the lid to dry. Then separate the green and red ones while they are drying. Wait until the moisture dries up before cutting off the stems with scissors, and then cut the red peppers into small pieces.
Wen Wan had never seen this before, so she took a sewing basket, put the work in it, brought it out and sat down to join in the fun.
While working with his hands, he kept looking around and asking questions.
She asked because she had never seen it before and didn't understand, so Zhang Hongying had to teach her.
"It's been sunny these past couple of days, but it's actually not that hot anymore. Logically, the colder the weather, the better for making chili sauce, but I have to use my private plot to grow other things, so there's no other way. There are some things to pay attention to when making this. First of all, the chili stems must not be removed first, because they need to be washed. If you remove them, water will seep in, making it difficult to dry. Chili peppers can't stand water at all; it rots if it does. You can't be careless at all. This is the most important thing; the rest isn't so important."
Zhang Hongying said, looking at the work in her hands: "Is it finished?"
Wen Wan said, "No, it's still early. I just used the machine to lock the edge. Now that the pattern is ready, I have to sew the rest by hand. It's too thick for the sewing machine to handle."
"There's no rush. It's not like I need to wear it right away."
Wen Wan didn't respond.
Since she had taken on a job, she naturally had to do it well. She had to do it early or late, so she had to finish it early. She only had a few free days a week, and she couldn't do much on other days. Next week, she wanted to see if Lu Dongping had time. If not, she could go the week after that. She wanted to go to the county town to see if there was any suitable fabric. She wanted to make a dress for Old Wen and send it back. As for the Xu family, even if no one else told her, her grandparents would definitely want it. Even at such an old age, they still cared about her.
She might not have enough cloth coupons, but she was just going to take a look. If she came across cloth that didn't require coupons, it wouldn't matter if the price was a little higher.
Lu Donglin and Lu Chun'e were cutting pepper stems there. After working for a while, they couldn't sit still anymore, so they made an excuse to go pee, turned around and ran away without a trace.
I could hear him talking through the wall, and I thought he had gone to visit the next door.
After staying there for a while, he came running back, as if he had discovered something incredible and rare, and told Zhang Hongying and the others, "Mom, Brother Dongcai's child has a name. Lu Dongfu gave it to him. Can you guess what it's called?"
Zhang Hongying glanced at him and said, "Call me brother, why are you calling me by my full name? It's disrespectful."
Lu Donglin pouted in dissatisfaction.
Zhang Hongying continued, "It's a name, it's a name. What's the big deal? Dongfu is well-educated, so naming is no big deal."
Lu Donglin snorted, "Do you know what name he gave it? Chuyi, he said it was born on the first day of October. So what would he call it if it was born on the 25th? It's obvious he didn't use any brains."
Zhang Hongying frowned. "It doesn't matter. Any nickname is fine. Don't be too particular. The child is too young to control it. Just have a name."
Wen Wan looked up and added, "The first day of the new year sounds very nice. It's unique. There are plum blossoms and other flowers everywhere. The first day of the new year is very good."
Lu Donglin: ——stunned
He stopped mentioning his name but continued to talk about Chuyi: "My aunt is taking care of him. He lives with her at night. She said that Sister-in-law Laiying has no milk, and she doesn't seem to like Chuyi very much."
Zhang Hongying scolded him: "Stop talking nonsense all day long. What do you know, little kid?"
Lu Donglin snorted in dissatisfaction: "How did I say that? I heard it from my aunt."
Zhang Hongying didn't believe his nonsense: "Your aunt-in-law has nothing to do, so she tells you these things?" She didn't even know her elder sister-in-law well, so how could she tell Lu Donglin, that little bastard, about the family matters? He was a talkative person, and if he knew anything, few people in the production team would not know about it.
"Really, don't disbelieve me. Brother Dongcai had a fight with her yesterday. I figured she must want a boy, not a girl. Otherwise, how could she just say she didn't like it? She carried the baby for almost a year before giving birth. At that time, she even bought new cloth and asked my sister-in-law to make clothes for him. How could she suddenly change her mind?"
Zhang Hongying glanced at him and said, "You're the smartest." After that, she thought for a moment and warned him, "This is your uncle's family's business. Don't tell anyone else about it."
"I know. I'm not stupid. I can't let the dirty laundry of my family get out into the open. I'm not someone like Zhou Guicai who keeps his mouth shut."
Wen Wan, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke up: "How could she not like a daughter? I saw that my aunt was very happy and didn't say that having a daughter was bad, so why does she dislike it? No one can predict whether it will be a boy or a girl. Are you going to give up if it's a girl? Isn't that a bit too much?"
Zhang Hongying paused, straightened her back and stretched lazily. "That's right. Some people are just so strange. You have no idea what's going on in their heads. But it's hard to say if it's just the tradition of the Li family. They treat boys as treasures and girls as trash. When Li Laiying first got together with Dongcai, she was so pitiful, pale and thin, as if she would fall down at the slightest breeze. Her clothes were so patched that they couldn't be patched anymore. The cloth that your aunt-in-law tore off was even stolen by her family. They said they were going to save it for finding a wife for their son in the future."
"At that time, everyone was looking at this person who was used to a hard life. If she came here and her family treated her better, she would definitely be able to live a stable life with Dongcai. But who would have thought that this seemingly honest person would become more and more troublesome. She is just a woman, and when her words are not accepted by her family, she doesn't know how hard life is. She doesn't know how to take good care of her own daughter. Others haven't despised her yet, but she is the first to despise her. I don't know what's wrong with her brain. People's blessings are different, and they should be cherished. Don't go too far, or you will have nothing left in the end."
After saying that, he looked at Wen Wan and smiled: "We don't have the problem of favoring boys over girls in our family. Daughters are good, considerate and obedient, unlike boys, who have to worry about us since they were young." As he said that, his eyes couldn't help but glance at Wen Wan.
The couple has such a good relationship, I wonder if she is pregnant now.
I then consoled myself by thinking that we had only been married for a month, and it wasn't that accurate that I could get pregnant on the first try. There was no need to rush. I really couldn't rush. The girl next door hadn't had any luck for two years after getting married.
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